Miscellaneous

Two historic punk
rock music festivals were held in Mont-de-Marsan's bullring in
1976 and 1977.

Mont-de-Marsan airbase is a major installation of the Armée de
l'Air. The base includes CEAM (the French air force military
experience center), an air defense radar command reporting centre,
and an air defence control training site. Mont-de-Marsan airbase
was formerly home to France's first operational squadron of nuclear
bombers, the Dassault Mirage IVA.

From LoveToKnow 1911

MONT-DE-MARSAN, a town of south-west France, capital of the department
of Landes at the confluence of
the Midou and the Douze, 92 m. S. of Bordeaux on the Southern railway between Morcenx and Tarbes. Pop. (1906), 9059. Most of the buildings
are in the older quarter, on the peninsula between the two rivers
forming the Midouze. La Pepiniere, a beautiful public garden, extends along the right
bank of the Douze. A keep of the
14th century, now used for military purposes, was built by Gaston
Phoebus, count of Foix, to overawe the inhabitants, and
goes by the name of Nou-li-Bos (in
modern French "Tu ne l'y veux pas"). The finest of the modern
buildings is an officers' club, which contains a small museum. A
court of assizes sits in the town; the local institutions comprise
a tribunal of first instance, a branch of the Bank of France, and a
lycee. The industries include distillation of turpentine and resinous oils, tanning, the founding and forging of metal, wood-sawing, and manufactures of machinery
and straw envelopes for bottles.
There is trade in resin, wine, brandy, timber, cattle, horses and other live stock.

Mont-de-Marsan, the first of the Bastides (q.v.) of the middle
ages, dates from 1141, when it was founded by Pierre, vicomte
de Marsan, as the capital of his territory. In the 13th century it
passed to the viscounts of Beam,
but the harsh rule of Gaston Phoebus and some of his successors
induced the people to favour the English. The territory was united
to the French Crown on the
accession of Henry IV.